A location-based service (“LBS”) is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through a mobile network, and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical (or “geographic”) position or location of the mobile device. LBS services can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, work and personal life. LBS services include services to identify a location of a person or object, such as discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the whereabouts of a friend or employee. Real-time locating systems (“RTLS”) can be used to track and identify the location of objects in real time using nodes (or badges, tags) attached to, or embedded in, objects and devices (readers) that receive the wireless signals from these tags to determine their locations. RTLS typically refers to systems that provide passive or active (automatic) collection of location information.
A geographical location (or geolocation) method can be used to identify the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a cell phone or an Internet-connected computer terminal. Geo-location can refer to the practice of assessing the location of an object, or to the actual assessed location of the object.
Mobile positioning is technology for determining or approximating the location of a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, and thereby also a user of the mobile device. Mobile positioning is a type of LBS. Mobile positioning of mobile phones is typically accomplished by measuring power levels and antenna patterns, and using the notion that a mobile phone communicates wirelessly with the closest base stations to determine or approximate the geographic location (also “geo-location” herein) of a user. Advanced geo-location systems can determine the sector in which the mobile phone resides and roughly estimate also the distance to the base station. Further approximation of the location of a mobile device can be performed by interpolating signals between neighboring base stations.